After a week of hard work for N. and plenty of cookery for me, I came home from grocery shopping last Saturday and routine disintegrated.   N. and I looked at each other, and we looked at our books, and we looked at the tentative sunshine falling onto our porch, and we decided to take our dog-daughter to the beach.  Sure, there was cooking to be done and reading to be done, and editing and grading and cogitation.

But there was also this:

And that made it all worthwhile.

And then when we got home, sandy and tired and smiling, the house smelled like strawberries from the buy-one-get-one-free sale I couldn’t help but take advantage of during my grocery adventure.  So there was nothing else to do but eat them.  A whir of cream with a sprinkle of sugar in my trusty stand mixer, some quick coring knife-work, and two beautiful glasses, and voila, dessert is served.